Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, an outspoken black conservative Democrat, is calling out the left for contributing to the atmosphere that sparked the Milwaukee riots. The rioting began last weekend after a black policeman shot Sylville K. Smith, a 23-year-old black man who was armed, because Sylville allegedly refused to put his gun down when asked. He also allegedly had stolen the handgun during a burglary.

After the fatal shooting, Black Lives Matter started violent protests ― despite the fact it was a black-on-black shooting and the rioting would likely harm black businesses. At least six businesses were burned to the ground, seven squad cars were damaged, including one that was set on fire, and several law enforcement officers were injured from rioters throwing rocks at them. Protesters yelling “black power” reportedly sought out whites for beatdowns. More than 30 people were arrested.

Clarke Furious at Progressives

In a column for The Hill, Clarke said he was “furious that the progressive left has put my citizens in harm’s way and that I had to send my officers into cauldrons of anarchy and hatred that were created by the left.” Milwaukee is run by progressive Democrats who have expanded the welfare state, he noted, and excoriated his own party’s liberals: “The Milwaukee riots should be the last time the policies of liberal Democrats are held up as anything other than misery-inducing, divisive, exploitative and racist manipulation of the urban populations.”

He continued making the argument on Twitter:

Failed Democrat Progressive liberal urban policies create ghettos like Milwaukee that erupt into violence at the most inane provocation.

— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) August 16, 2016

Milwaukee has a large black population, about 40 percent of the city. Milwaukee and the surrounding metro area was labeled the worst metropolitan area for blacks to live in by the site 24/7 Wall St, due to factors such as high incarceration rates for black men and large income gaps between blacks and whites.

Clarke said the riots grew partly out of  “dysfunctional lifestyle choices like father absent homes.”

If only the Democrat party would get their boot off the neck of the Black community and let them get off the mat. pic.twitter.com/gzkevgEQQM

— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) August 15, 2016

“What causes riots are failed liberal urban policies in these ghettos,” Clarke said during an interview on Fox Business TV. “Milwaukee has inescapable poverty. We’re like the sixth poorest city in America. They have failing public schools … You have massive black unemployment … You have dysfunctional families, you have father-absent homes, you have questionable lifestyle choices.” He went on, “Those are the ingredients for for a riot. And then a police shooting comes along and just acts as an igniter to an already volatile situation.”

He also slammed the left-leaning media, saying, “You have an accomplice liberal mainstream media here in Milwaukee, but this is also happening nationwide.”

Smith’s Father’s Failure

Support for some of the sheriff’s claims came from an unlikely source.

After Sylville Smith was fatally shot, the man’s father admitted he hadn’t been a good role model. “I had to blame myself for a lot of things, too, because your hero is your dad and I played a very big part in my family’s role model for them,” Patrick Smith said during an interview with TV station WITI.

Being on the street, doing things of the street life: Entertaining, drug dealing and pimping ― and they’re looking at their dad like, “He’s doing all these things. I got out of jail two months ago, but I’ve been going back and forth in jail and they see those things. So I’d like to apologize to my kids because this is the role model they look up to. When they see the wrong role model, this is what you get.

Sylville Smith had accumulated a significant criminal record, including charges for felony retail theft, felony intimidation of a witness/person, and recklessly endangering safety, also a felony. Investigators said he opened fire on a man in a dispute involving a couple of women. Smith’s grandfather said he had mental health issues so was living off of Social Security, and had been shot more than once in the past.

Straight Talk

Clarke is not afraid to make judgments that others wouldn’t dare to. In 2015, he had tweeted, “Before long, Black Lies Matter will join forces with ISIS to being down our legal constituted republic.” He refers to the movement as “Black Lies Matter.” He says they are “subhuman creeps,” and has called for the eradication of the movement “from American society.”

He refers to the problems plaguing Milwaukee as “black cultural dysfunction.” When rioters in Ferguson, Mo., started burning down businesses after the police shooting of Mike Brown, Clarke referred to them as “vultures on a roadside carcass.”

The violent protests are a “collapse of the social order,” he says. He observed on Fox & Friends, “One of the first stores that was looted when the rioting broke out on Saturday was a liquor store and that tells you about the character of this group.”

https://t.co/QsZmOecZ4F This black cultural dysfunction should be shunned and condemned by every law abiding person and no less black people

— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) August 15, 2016

And in 2013, he said that Americans cannot solely rely on the police for protection and should arm themselves.

For these and other positions Clarke has been attacked extensively by the left. Yet despite the criticism, he continues to be re-elected year after year, since he was first elected in 2002, by approximately the same margins every time. The people of Milwaukee County apparently like what he is doing. And saying.

 

Follow Rach_IC on Twitter.